I like to celebrate the Winter Solstice. To me, it seems worth noticing when the journey into greater and greater darkness has drawn to an end, and we begin the cycle back to the long warm days of abundance. Some years I’m lucky if I merely notice we’ve reached the date on the calendar. But I prefer to do something more meaningful. In San Diego one of the best options is to hike up and watch the dawn from the top of Cowles Mountain.
The mountain is located within Mission Trails Regional Park, the huge reserve on the eastern edge of San Diego, just south of Highway 52. At 1591 feet above sea level, the peak is the highest point within the city limits. What makes it particularly special is that it long served the local Kumeyaay Indians as a sacred solstice-observation site. There’s a spot on the south shoulder of the mountain from which the sun appears to be split in two in the first seconds after it creeps up over the moutain ridge to the east.
The thing is, even from the sacred shoulder, you have to be positioned just right to experience the split-sun phenomenon, and maneuvering yourself into the precise spot isn’t so easy. Yesterday dozens upon dozens of people had made the hike up and congregated at the sacred shoulder by 6:47 a.m., the official time for daybreak. Some had set up blankets and were nibbling on pastries and sipping coffee. Others brought their dogs. When the first first blazing pinpricks appeared, a collective “Ah!” broke forth, amidst scattered applause.
The peaceable, congenial, communal paganism impressed me as much, I imagined, as the optical illusion did those ancient Kumeyaay. The hike up and down can also be a thing of pleasure. The ocean-view southern route starts near the parking lot and trailhead at Navajo Road and Golfcrest Drive. Most folks start from here, so it’s virtually impossible to take a wrong turn, even in the inky pre-dawn. but it’s also not exactly a wilderness experience. For a more solitary ascent, start near the western end of Boulder Lake Avenue, at Barker Way, one block west of Cowles Mountain Boulevard. Just past a vehicle gate, a service road leads upward, and signposts help to guide the way.
Next year the solstice once again will occur on the 21st of December (a Monday). But you needn’t wait till then. The hike up anytime, year-round, is well worth doing.
